How to oppose science and english
by WhovianAlison
Summary: Alison Collins is normal in every single way but one, but that one difference would be as they say, a spoiler. She's 23, an English teacher and impossibly late for everything and anything, that is until she meets a young girl and her mysterious grandfather, along with some collegues she gets whisked away in a flurry of terror and amazement.
1. Prologue: First Meetings

Prologue

First meetings

One o'clock on the 23rd November 1963 saw young school teacher Alison Collins running down Totter's Lane towards her house. She was just rushing past the old abandoned junk yard when an old man appeared as if from thin air, right in front of her. Alison, not noticing him, continued to run full speed down the lane. This ended, of course, with the poor man being nearly bowled over by the enthusiastic young girl.

Alison stopped abruptly when she felt herself collide with something hard; she looked up slightly dazed and saw the angry face of an old man looking at her.

"Well, I hope you're happy with yourself young lady, nearly knocking over a poor man, it's quite ridiculous", he broke off suddenly and gazed at her almost expectantly.

She was still staring at him, but now her eyes had clouded as if she was severely confused and hadn't understood a word he had just spoken. He sighed seeing the obvious obliviousness of the girl and started muttering under his breath, meanwhile Alison had regained most of her senses and was able to make out a few words: "ridiculous", "humans" and strangely enough a name "Susan", at this last one Alison reacted because she knew Susan. Susan was the name of one of her pupils, her newest pupil in fact, certainly her brightest and, if Alison was being honest with herself, her favourite. Susan, according to the headmaster, lived at 76 Totter's Lane with her grandfather, who must be this man Alison realized. She looked at him a sudden light of excitement in her eyes, "Susan? Do you mean Susan Foreman?" she asked curiously.

It was now his turn to look surprised, it was almost as if he had never heard the name before, or at least he had never heard anyone except himself say it out loud before.

"Yes, of course I do, why? Do you have anything to say about her? Hmmm?" he demanded, now aggressive with, what she assumed to be grandfatherly overprotection.

In reality he was just extremely suspicious of anybody who mentioned Susan like that as people had tried to hurt her or take her away from him before.

"Oh, yes, I do actually", she answered quickly shocked by his verbal attack "I just wanted to tell you how wonderful she is, you must be very proud of her sir –"

"Doctor"

"What? Oh, alright Doctor then, anyway as I was saying is the most intelligent pupil I have ever taught"

"Pupil? Oh, so you're a teacher are you? Hmmm? Well I don't think much of your manners young lady, but thank you, hmmm… ", he trailed off thoughtfully "you must be… Alison, yes Alison Collins the English teacher".

Alison smiled, "that's right si- Doctor but how did you… oh Susan, of course!"

He peered at her closely and she blushed at his gaze and at her own stupidity.

"Well, shouldn't you be at work at this hour Miss Collins, hmmm?" he asked inquiringly.

"Umm… Oh yes I should but you see I was just off home to fetch a book for, well for Susan actually", she smiled at him "she really is curious isn't she? Anyway-", she checked her watch, "I really should be going, otherwise I really shall be late".

She held out her hand, "Well, goodbye Doctor". He grasped her small hand in his and shook it "Hmm?" he said as he was still studying her intently, "Oh yes, goodbye my dear".

At the time neither of them realized the significance of that moment and Alison had absolutely no idea of what would come of that chance meeting on the pavement.


	2. Chapter One: Who is Susan Foreman?

**You know those rewrite things where authors take dialogue and the ideas from the episode/book/movie and rewrite it the way they want, yeah that's what this is. Please don't be put off by this fact, the stories while in the same chronological order will vary a bit from the original stories, though probably when we get to "The Daleks"**

**Okay, so disclaimer… Doctor Who and its canon characters do in no way belong to me. Most of the dialogue in this chapter is taken from the episode "An Unearthly Child". **

**There done… on with the story**

Chapter 1

Who is Susan?

Three and a half hours later a loud ringing announced the end of the day at Coal Hill Secondary School in London. Enthusiastic teenagers filled the corridors, relieved to be free from the monotony of lessons. Girls were giggling and whispering as boys passed them by in the corridors, whereas the boys themselves were discussing sports.

Inside her class, 1C, Alison pushed her glasses up on to her head and started putting her books away, smiling as she did so. She had had a good afternoon, her pupils, their spirits dampened by the wet November day, had been almost frighteningly quiet and calm. Actually it was almost worrying, it was almost as if it was the metaphorical calm before the storm, but of course that was the sort of thinking that ruined people's days, so Alison shoved the thought away. In fact she had been enjoying herself so much that she had almost forgotten the strange old man.

Checking her bag one last time she noticed the book she had meant to lend to Susan. 'There you have it Alison', she thought, annoyed at herself, 'enjoy yourself too much and you'll grow forgetful in your old age'. She sighed, mentally resigning herself to giving it to Susan the next day and walked out of the door into the now silent corridor. Well, near silent, as she was walking she heard someone's footsteps behind her, she turned to see who it was and grinned brightly for once showing how young she truly was, it was a fellow teacher and her very good friend Barbara Wright. Barbara was the school's history teacher and the first person to talk to her when she'd arrived at the school two years beforehand, so naturally, the two were very close. Barbara smiled back at her kindly.

"Are you alright Alison?" she asked not unkindly, "You looked a little bit out of breath earlier, were you late again?" she teased Alison lightly.

Alison, as Barbara implied, still had the unfortunate tendency of youth to always be late, for everything, in fact it happened so often that it had become a joke between the two of them, and their friend Ian Chesterton, the science teacher.

Alison rolled her eyes at her friend and sighed "Actually I was, you see I had promised to lend a book to Susan Foreman for a bit of extracurricular reading, but naturally I forgot it at home so…"

"So you had to go home and get it" Barbara finished a small smile still present, "Oh Alison, what on Earth am I going to do with you?" she sighed with a motherly voice.

At that question Alison laughed and put on an innocent smile "Well I'm sure I don't know what you mean Barbara".

Barbara laughed lightly and continued "Anyway speaking of lending books to Susan, she asked me to lend her a book on the French revolution, apparently it's her grandfather's favourite time period. You know, she'll probably end up rewriting the whole thing".

By now they had reached the door of class 3C, Ian's science class, Barbara stopped and knocked quietly. When they both entered the "science-room" as Alison had privately dubbed it, Ian was crouched in front of a microscope and was obviously oblivious to their entrance, Alison walked up to his desk and put her bag on it, not very gently and hoisted herself up on to it. At that Ian looked up, an almost pained look on his face, though Alison knew it was not genuine.

"Not gone yet?" he asked cheerfully, walking over to the desk and marking some papers.

"No" Alison replied "otherwise we wouldn't still be here Ian".

He laughed lightly and teased "Who said I was asking you? And besides" he nudged her lightly "you know I could just push you off there", he pointed to the desk on which she was perched.

Alison pouted knowing he wouldn't actually do it but playing the hurt victim anyway. Barbara rolled her eyes at her two colleagues far to used to the father-daughter teasing they did to say anything and clearly preoccupied with something else, she answered Ian's earlier question shortly, "Obviously not".

She started walking towards the desk as Ian replied "Ask a silly question" in a slightly hurt voice, whereas Alison looked at looked at her shocked because Barbara never snapped at anybody.

"Barbara is something the matter?" she asked concerned for her friend.

"What? Oh I'm sorry" Barbara replied sincerely in answer to both the question and the hurt answer from Ian.

She turned to look at them a small apologetic smile on her face. Alison smiled back "Oh it's alright, we forgive you this time Barbara, but are you sure you're alright?"

Barbara walked over to the desk from where both Alison and Ian were looking at her friendly concern all over their faces, and sat down gently in the chair sighing "Oh, I've just had a terrible day and I don't know what to make of it" she said almost resigned.

"Really?" asked Alison "well I had a wonderful day, well afternoon at least and-"

"Shush Alison" said Ian not unkindly "we're talking about Barbara, though you having a good day is almost as bad" he turned to look at the third person in the room "Well, what's the trouble? Can we help?"

"Oh, it's one of the girls, Susan Foreman" Barbara started in way of an answer.

"Susan Foreman?" Ian asked laughing slightly "she your problem too?"

"Yes" Barbara replied sounding more resigned than ever.

"And you don't know what to make of her?" Alison inquired, feeling she should at least try to understand the problem as she didn't actually have any problems with Susan, though she didn't know what to make of her.

"No" Barbara answered quietly, so quietly in fact that Ian's next question almost drowned out the word.

"How old is she Barbara?"

"Fifteen" Alison replied instantaneously.

Ian looked at her and sighed playfully reaching out to ruffle the young teacher's hair causing her to glare at him, "I didn't know you were called Barbara, anyway as you said she's fifteen and yet I get the feeling she lets out her knowledge out a bit at a time so as not to embarrass me. Don't you think so?"

Alison nodded slowly, "Yes, I do, sometimes at least, yet at other times she's almost, clueless, you know as if she doesn't quite know how things work here or something like that, for example she can tell me anything about any author from any time period and yet when I ask her simple questions about this year's authors she can't answer them."

Ian nodded his agreement, "Yes, I get that too, she knows more about science than I'll ever know, she's a genius, is that what she's doing in history?"

Barbara smiled acknowledgingly "Yes something like that".

Ian continued "Sometimes I feel the problem is whether to stay in business or just hand the classroom to her"

"No" Barbara said, almost reprovingly "not quite" she went on "You two, I must talk to someone about this, but I don't want to get the girl in trouble and I know you're going to tell me I'm imagining things", she looked pointedly at Ian as she said this.

Ian looked offended and Alison couldn't help but let out a small giggle at his indignant face, yet at the same time she felt pleased that Barbara trusted her enough to know that she wouldn't judge anything she would say. Of course her thoughts had drawn her away from the conversation, so when they cleared it was in time to hear Barbara say, "-at her home, she said that would be absolutely impossible as her grandfather didn't like strangers".

"Her grandfather?" Alison asked "Why, I met her grandfather a couple of hours ago, just in front of the old junkyard in Totter's Lane while I was going home. He was a bit rough but didn't seem to have any particular aversion to strangers. I mean he is a doctor after all".

"You say you met him at the old junkyard in Totter's Lane?" Barbara asked interrogatively.

"Yes, that's right" Alison replied "Why?"

"It's just, I went to her house, to talk to her grandfather because her homework's been so bad lately you know" at this the other two nodded, "it's at 76 Totter's Lane according to the secretary so I went along there one evening and- Oh Ian, do pay attention" she looked at him exasperatedly because he had started walking off.

"Oh, sorry Barbara, go on, you went along there one evening?" he prompted.

"Yes and there isn't anything there, it's just the old junkyard" she explained.

"Well you must have gone to the wrong place" Ian replied reasonably.

Alison thought in silence, trying to remember the meeting in front of the junkyard, "No she's quite right Ian, on one side of the yard is number 78 and on the other 74, 76 should be right in the middle where the yard is but-" she said turning to Barbara "that's impossible isn't it? She can't live there, can she?"

"No" Barbara replied firmly "she can't, it's just not possible".

"Hmm? Seems like we've got a bit of a mystery, well there must be a simple answer somewhere" Ian said as always being the voice of reason.

He started walking around the desk towards the two concerned girls.

"Well, what is it?" Alison asked intrigued.

"We'll have to find out for ourselves won't we" said Ian, now as fascinated as the girls were.

" Thank you for the "we"" Barbara replied teasingly "She's waiting in one of the classrooms" Barbara went on more serious now "I'm lending her a book on the French revolution and Alison is lending her an "extracurricular book" as she described it."

"Oh really?" asked Ian "And what book would that be?" he was referring to Alison's enormous book collection.

"Just the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the books we're reading in class seem to be completely uninteresting to her so I'm giving her something more complex", Alison replied ignoring his little jibe, she knew she was obsessed with books and was the first to admit it.

"Anyway, what's she going to do rewrite it?" Ian inquired, this time questioning Barbara.

Barbara rolled her eyes at him, despite her telling Alison the exact same thing not twenty minutes earlier.

"Oh alright" Ian conceded chuckling slightly, "Well what are we going to do? Ask her point blank?"

Barbara looked at them "No" she said "I thought we could just drive there, wait 'til she arrives and see where she goes".

"Oh" exclaimed Alison warming up to this spying idea "Alright".

"That is if you're not doing anything" Barbara looked at them questioningly.

The three of them started off towards like the door, Ian put his coat on and held the door open for the two girls. "No I'm not" he said "After you".

The three of them left classroom 3C and Ian shut the door behind them.

"Alison?" Barbara asked "Are you sure you're not doing anything?" it almost sounded as if she was willing her not to go.

Alison just smiled "No, I'm not either Barbara, you can't put me off".

Barbara rolled her eyes as if she expected nothing else and said nothing.

From down the corridor came the sound of music playing and the three teachers walked towards it, Alison dancing slightly as she did so. The two older teachers exchanged fondly exasperated look, they were both far to used to Alison's youthful tendencies.

They entered a classroom at the far end of the corridor, the music was a lot louder once inside, but that was because of the small radio which was held in the hand of a young brunette girl, Susan Foreman herself. The girl was, like Alison had been in the corridor, dancing slightly in time with the music and the two older teachers shared a small smile at the similarities between the brunette and the blond but of course they had a job to do.

"Susan" Barbara called out.

The girl whipped around in surprise, almost dropping the radio "I'm sorry miss Wright, I-I didn't hear you coming in" she smiled nervously and spotted Alison "Oh hello miss Collins, I mean Alison" Susan was still getting used to calling her Alison, because Alison insisted that her pupils call her by her first name so as to not feel intimidated by her. "Aren't they fabulous?" she continued.

"Who?" Alison asked, knowing she was referring to the band.

"Oh it's John Smith and the Common men, they they've gone from 19 to 2" Susan replied at top speed, as usual.

"Really?" Alison asked "Well that's good".

Ian decided to impose a bit of his own knowledge on the group and insisted about his enquiring mind once Susan told him she never expected him to know about that, Alison had to stifle another laugh and Ian shot her a look and continued "And I have a very sensitive ear".

"Oh, I'm sorry" Susan said quickly turning round to turn the radio off looking guilty.

"It's alright Susan" Alison said gently "Don't worry about him".

Susan flashed her a grateful smile and turned to Barbara, "Is that the book you promised me?"

"Yes" Barbara replied.

"Thank you very much" Susan said eagerly "I'll return it tomorrow".

"No, you keep it until you've finished" Barbara said.

Susan looked at her curiously, "Oh I'll have finished it by tomorrow".

Barbara, Ian and Alison exchanged looks, as Susan walked over to her bag and started putting her book away.

"Well, where do you live Susan?" Ian asked feigning ignorance "I'm taking miss Wright and Alison home and I have room for one more, I could take you".

"Oh no that's alright, I like walking in the dark" Susan replied hastily "It's mysterious".

"Well be careful" Barbara warned "There might be fog out".

Susan hummed in acknowledgement and the three teachers walked out of the room bidding the girl goodnight. They were halfway to the front door when Alison realized that she hadn't given the book to Susan, 'oh well' she thought 'at least if we get caught spying on Susan I'll have a valid excuse". For one thing was certain, they were going to get to the bottom of this mystery. They would no longer have to question the identity of the mysterious Susan Foreman. When they reached Ian's car only one thought filled their minds, 'Who is Susan Foreman?'.


End file.
